


Circus Dog

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 20:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17210594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Snoddy and Pie Eater get a gigantic dog, guest starring Jack Kelly.





	Circus Dog

A knock on the door jolted Snoddy awake. “Let’s ignore it,” he grumbled against the soft, well-worn folds of Pie Eater’s undershirt. He could here the other man’s heart beating against his ear, feel the slight, abrupt rise of his chest as he chuckled.

“It just turned seven o'clock,” Pie Eater pointed out. “Ain’t nobody sees that as an unreasonable time to come calling.”

“Probably isn’t debt collectors then. They only come at unreasonable times.”

Another knock. Snoddy still didn’t budge. Pie Eater had been flipping through the afternoon edition of the World, and since Snoddy had planted himself in the way of Pie’s reading, the paper lay draped unceremoniously over him.

The third knock was accompanied by a muffled call of “Hey fellas, it’s me!”.

“That Kelly?” Pie Eater asked.

“Sounds just like him.” Just because Snoddy hadn’t seen Jack in a year or so didn’t mean that he couldn’t recognize his voice. Snoddy used Pie Eater’s shoulders as leverage to push himself up into a standing position, which caused the other boy to grunt. Their bed was just an old mattress on the ground, not even a foot away from the door. As soon as Snoddy opened it, a huge dog bounded into the room, on to the bed, and started licking at Pie Eater’s face.

“What the… Hey, hi there…”

Jack was grinning all over his face… grinning a little too much if Snoddy was any judge if things. “He likes you,” he said. He took of his hat and held it in his hands.

“Where’d you get him?” Snoddy knelt down to get a better look at the dog. It was grey and muscular, almost like a bulldog, but with a body that took up half the bed and a head that was a little bigger than Snoddy’s own. The only thing little about it was its knobby little stub of a tail, which wagged back and forth enthusiastically.

“I’ll have you know that that dog’s famous,” Jack declared, fist pumping in the air for emphasis. “His name’s Bruno Jupiter Greeley, and he’s a real circus dog. He can do all kinds of things!”

“How’d you get him, Kelly?” Pie Eater scratched at the dog’s neck, but suspicion had crept into his voice. “And why’d you bring him here.”

“Maybe I just wanted to bring a present for an old friend,” Jack said, all bluster. Pie Eater rolled his eyes. He and Jack had never been friends.

“Look,” Jack went on, “I tried everyone I know. Mush don’t want him, ‘cause he’s got a rabbit. Dave don’t want him, ‘cause he’s a stick in the mud and I already brought home a couple of dogs. I tried to tell him that that was a good thing, that it’d give Bruno a pack to run with, but you know how David is. Skittery’s allergic. Turns out Itey’s scared of dogs. Kloppman told me where you guys lived, and said you liked dogs, so I brought him over here.”

“Why don’t the circus want him?”

Jack frowned darkly. “Turns out he’s getting old, and his knees is bad. He can’t ride a bicycle and dance with bears no more, so they don’t want him. Can you believe that?”

Snoddy was ready to say that they didn’t want him either. It wasn’t anything personal, just that they hardly had enough food and space for themselves, let alone this Goliath of a canine. Just as Snoddy was opening his mouth to say just that, he noticed Pie Eater leaning in to say something in the dog’s ear.

“We’ll never make you ride a bicycle, promise,” were the words that Snoddy heard. The dog could not have possibly understood, but it wagged its stumpy tail, shuffled in closer to Pie Eater, and lay his enormous head in his lap. It was at that moment that Snoddy knew that they were lost.


End file.
